Desperation
by Choko-chi
Summary: The war is finally over, but at what price?


So i should probably write some new chapters for my old stories, but when the plot bunnies run amok in my head, i have to obey and write what they trow after me, but i promise that there will soon be more chapters for Creatures of the night! Working on them right now..

_Warnings: Character death, and a lot of it. I haven't read the last few chapters, but i don't think I'll spoil anything ;P  
Disclaimer : I don't own Naruto! _

**_Special thanks to my lovely Beta reader who has to deal with me randomly mailing her new stories, even though i need to finish my other ones __**

Desperation

Calloused fingers slowly traced the names written in stone. The war was over, but at what price? There were so many that had died, more than they had first thought. While those who hadn't died in battle, had died from the wounds when the battle finally ended, be it mentally or physically.

So many people had pushed themselves, pushed through for just another battle, in hopes that it was the last, yet they just kept doing it. They did that because they still had hope, but alas people started dying at an alarming rate. They made stupid mistakes that caused the death of a lot of people, simply because they were too tired, too stressed, to think properly.

But no one had stopped them from doing it again, it were necessary. The excitement felt too good that no one even wanted to have breaks, and who cared if one in twenty missions ended with most of them dead, when the other nineteen ended with the opposite?

But for every failed mission there was a little part of them that died, until they were just another name on the stone. Either by their own hand, or by the hand of the enemy. But in the end it would all be the same, they would all die sooner or later.

At first they hadn't even understood what was happening, they had thought that it would be easy, that their victory was decided no matter what. They had been so confident, so sure that no matter what they did, it would be the right thing. Killing had been hard at first, knowing that you chose to end someone's life just for you to continue living, and that had been what had made most of them face reality.

Why did they have the right to decide who got to live, and who had to die? Why was it that they got to play god, saying that it was justice, when they were going to war for exactly the same reason? They tried to 'save' the world by playing god, but their opponents had thought of the very same thing. Thought that it was their claim, that it was their right.

That had been what had gotten the first of them killed. Choji, the sweet giant of a man, did not have it in him to murder a mother and her child. Had felt wrong when he was ordered to kill her. Not seeing how one woman could make a difference, but as he had turned she had stabbed him in the back. He had, earlier that day, killed her husband, the father of her child, and she was driven mad with the thirst for revenge, and then she had killed and killed, until one of the men finally got her.

But that mistake had cost seven people their lives, seven people who later turned up among the enemies. And after that there had been no mercy, it killed them slowly from within. Having to end your friends' life again and again, because they just kept coming back.

After Choji's death they started seeing the true face of war. They had thought that it would have been like their missions, like the possibility of getting hurt, but never had one of their close friends died. And it was hard on them. Some of them had already experienced the death of a family member, or the death of a precious person, but never had they lost one of their comrades.

Ino, who had been dating Choji at the time, took it the hardest. Accepting his death was something she just couldn't do. She started losing sleep, going on more and more suicidal missions, and one day she just didn't return. It had been months, too long, before they knew for sure that she was dead. She had turned up by Choji's side at the battlefield, just another enemy, but they had their peace, knowing that she was once again by her beloved's side.

The bronze fingers slowly traced their names on the stone, where they had been placed together, side by side, so that they forever would be together. A wistful smile spread across dry lips. They had been burned together, shared a grave, Choji, Ino and their unborn child.

Shikamaru had taken it surprisingly well, or as well as someone who had lost his two childhood friends within half a year, could take it. But then again, he knew better than to do anything stupid, he was the strategist that kept most of them alive with clever plans and dangerous traps. Sakura on the other hand, hadn't taken it quite as well, she had never really gotten the chance to apologize to Ino and make up, and it had been a hard blow, knowing that she would never get the chance.

Sakura's only reason to live after that had been Sasuke, who had changed sides once the war began, and had returned. But he had been the next to go. The war was going strong on the second year when it happened, he had led some of their forces into what had seemed like an easy battle, but Itachi had turned up, and without his feelings to hold him back, he had slaughtered most of them, only leaving ten out of the four hundred men that had gone to battle.

Sakura had gone mad with grief after that. Killed herself the night she got the news. They had known that it would happen, but it had still been a shock when they had found her the next day, throat slit, a bloody scalpel in her hand and a happy smile on her lips.

The fingers found her name without a problem, like the other's, it's as if they had memorized the places of all the names, which it had. More stones had been added on the field after the war, because one stone just didn't have space enough for all the names. But all his friends were gathered on that one stone. No one had protested when Sakura's name had been added, it might have been suicide, but she still deserved a place on the stone. She was just like the others, a sacrifice of war.

The hand moved quickly this time, darting to the next name on the stone. _Rock Lee_. He never really got over his crush on Sakura, and slowly he started to die. His rants about youth were fewer, and no longer as refreshing. They were forced, and everyone knew it. He had died alone, surrounded by the corpses of his enemies, only just staying alive long enough to kill the last one, and therefore preventing them from reaching the camp. He died a hero.

Gai and Kakashi had been the next to go, it had been a big battle, a hard battle, and they had died together, rivals until the end. They had died side by side, but not before every enemy was gone. They had found each other among the bodies, and then just collapsed beside each other, everyone had known that it would be the end for them. There would be no more youth rants at all, and no more perverted comments that would make you forget for just a while, that you were at war, just to hit the man over the head with that perverted book that he adored.

Madara had understood early on in the war that the bodies had a bigger physiological impact if they were made of flesh and blood, having to kill your loved ones, feeling their blood on your hands as they collapsed onto the ground, just another body on the battlefield, and that had been what killed Kiba. He too had been a childhood friend of Choji, and he had frozen when he had been forced to stab the other man. He had stabbed him in the eye, hard enough to hit the brain, and as his reward he had been, to be covered in the other's blood. He had just stood there, frozen in shock, and someone had stabbed him in the back.

The fingers got to the next name on their path down the stone, awakening the memories of the boy whose name he hit. When they had first met he had been a right asshole, but numerous of hardships had made them closer. He had always been a noble man of heart, but only getting recognized for his genius in the later half of the war, but at that time, he only wished that they would leave him alone. His so called 'family' had forced him to get harder missions, pushing him until he couldn't move for days, and in the end, he had died taking a blow for his last remaining teammate, and Neji had died in her arms.

It hadn't been long after that, that Hinata and Shino had died. They had kept going on missions together, refusing to leave each other after their teammates death. Not wanting to die alone. So they made sure that every big mission was with the other. And they had been able to keep each other alive, protecting each other when one of them had to kill someone they had dear again and again. It had been the third year, only a few weeks after Neji's death, and neither of them had known that he was dead, so when he turned up at the battlefield, they had thought that he was there to help. He had stabbed them both, killing them with one blow.

It had been a surprise when Kurenai died, she hadn't even been on the battlefield, she was supposed to be safe, but one of the 'guards' that protected the villagers turned out to be a traitor. He had tried to kill them all, but Kurenai had stopped him, at the prize of her life. She had died with a smile on her lips, finally going to see her lover and her team again, her only regret being leaving her child without parents.

At that point Shikamaru pulled back, no longer able to stay on the battlefield, and it was decided that he was much more worth back where he was safe, than on the battlefield where he could get killed. He was too valuable to let die, they needed him to make plans, and the only thing that kept him going was the thought of his teacher's child, knowing that if they lost that war, then the little boy would die. So he was kept safe, while most of his friends died, and he felt miserable, knowing that he could have been out there, making a difference.

Fingers slowly traced the next three names, Konohamaru and his teammates, Moegi and Udon, all too young to experience war, and all too young to die. They should have stayed with the villagers, should have stayed safe, but they had demanded that they had to come, that they were strong enough, but the war had broken them. Leaving them as nothing more than emotionless killers, but he had still loved them. He had hoped that there still were a chance, that they could survive, they had neared the end of the war when it happened.

A tear slowly dripped down onto the dry ground. They had died right in front of him, and he wasn't really sure how he survived that, it had been an attack meant for all of them, but he had survived, the only survivor of that battle, having to collect his comrades, his dead comrades, and get them back to the camp. That had been one hard trip, and he had thought about ending his own life more than he cared to admit. But he had gotten them home, only to collapse in Shikamaru's arms.

It just wasn't worth it, the war was too long, and when they finally thought that they had won, the true battle begun. It had been a five yearlong war, and they had all been pushed to their limits, and just when the war finally ended they had to face reality once again. A lot of people died within the first few weeks, died of exhaustion, died from the wounds they had sustained from the war, all because they had pushed themselves, thinking that maybe the next battle would be the last, that when the war finally ended, they no longer had to force themselves.

Sai and Tenten had been two out of many, both died within the first few weeks. Tenten died the day after the war ended, died from exhaustion, but she died in her own village, died at a place where she knew, that she would be treated with respect. Sai had died in the third week after the war had ended. He had been in critical condition from the wounds he got, a stab wound in his stomach that got infected was what ended his life.

"Naruto, we need to go".

Blue eyes looked up at the man in front of him, he almost looked the same, there were a few differences, but he was still as lazy as always. He was more alert now, and no matter how lazy he seemed , he was always ready to spring into action, should it be needed.

Naruto slowly rose from where he had been sitting the last few hours, it had been three years since the war ended, and only he and Shikamaru was alive from the Konoha 11, turned 12, and now they were leaving. They could no longer bear to stay in the village that held so many memories of the dead. They were leaving, going to Suna to help Gaara run his village.

He needed them just as much as they needed him. He had lost both his siblings in the war, and now standing alone, he needed someone desperately. And Naruto needed him, he had the last living Biju sealed within him, and Gaara was the only one who even came close to knowing how that felt, that never ending hopelessness.

A sad smile spread across the blonde's face as he looked one last time at the memorial stones, then he walked away with Shikamaru. They were going, and they were never coming back.

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**_And The End! Please review and tell me what you think :3 !_**


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